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poptimistsHullo poptimists! For a project I am working on which I shall reveal soon(ish), I would like your wise suggestions in four categories:
viz
A: music writers all should read (two parts)
B: music writing all should read (two parts)
C: zone of exchange that all should learn from
D: music-related film or documentary all should see
Eventually there will be polls and everything!
The four sections above will entail SIX tranches of nomination. (Tranche is a fancy word for slice: as in "combination boo and hoo, my tranche of cake is smaller than![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
katstevens's -- this crime shall not stand ect ect")
1: First, imagine you were inducting a reasonably intelligent outsider, of natural curiosity and openness, into the world of strong, useful, insightful or inspirational writing about music: which FOUR writers would you point them to? (Note: it can be any kind of music AT ALL...)
To start us off, I am going to name nine writers not to bother naming: they get a bye into the poll. DON'T WORRY OR BRIDLE: If you hate them, this is your chance to vote against them! I just want to get a slightly wider pool of potential entrants, really. The nine not to name are: Richard Meltzer, Robert Christgau, Greil Marcus, Lester Bangs, Jon savage, Paul Morley, Ian Penman, Richard Cook, Simon Reynolds. ALSO: Don't name me. I will be all over any project I am involved with. Known and active Poptimists (apart from me) you can of course name, though you're all kind of a given just by turning up.
2: Now imagine the pool of writers we generally get to see in a "best of music writing". Which FOUR writers would you like to see added to it that currently don't get in? (This can be based on a much smaller body of work I think...) Which writers do you think are overlooked or poorly understood? Which writers have an approach -- perhaps mainly directed at some "non-popular" music, or indeed some NON-music -- which you think would be valuable if others adopted it?
re 1&2: Please append to any writers nominated an exemplary work --book, interview, review, sleevenote, whatever, long or short, typical or atypical.
3: Name SIX books about music that everyone should read. It can be about ANY kind of music. But it can't be by any of the folk you nominated in 1 or 2 (so yes, you may have to do some juggling to get the results you favour...). If six such books do not yet exist, please say so.
4: Now name FOUR pieces that AREN'T books -- can be reviews, blog posts, comments -- that everyone should read (they can be collected in books; they just can't be books). Again: not by any of the folk you named in 1-3.
5: Name THREE zones of debate or discussion that were really hoppin. Thus for example: the Zigzag gossip column 1977-79; the comments threads on the War Against Silence in 2001; the reviews pages of the east Village Eye in 1967... They have to be accessible -- so eg not pub discussions on that amazing night or so-and-so's tutorials when x was in her class; they can be the whole of a magazine across a slice of time; or a website; or whatever you want that fits the bill. This is a question about chemistry of voices, voices that haven't perhaps been so strong or interesting when divorced from their co-squabblees.
6: Name SIX films or documentaries about music that everyone should see: ; non-fiction; fiction; biopic -- whatever. What matters is the question of how they deal with music itself: how they make it the subject, or backdrop, or whatever they do.
viz
A: music writers all should read (two parts)
B: music writing all should read (two parts)
C: zone of exchange that all should learn from
D: music-related film or documentary all should see
Eventually there will be polls and everything!
The four sections above will entail SIX tranches of nomination. (Tranche is a fancy word for slice: as in "combination boo and hoo, my tranche of cake is smaller than
katstevens's -- this crime shall not stand ect ect")1: First, imagine you were inducting a reasonably intelligent outsider, of natural curiosity and openness, into the world of strong, useful, insightful or inspirational writing about music: which FOUR writers would you point them to? (Note: it can be any kind of music AT ALL...)
To start us off, I am going to name nine writers not to bother naming: they get a bye into the poll. DON'T WORRY OR BRIDLE: If you hate them, this is your chance to vote against them! I just want to get a slightly wider pool of potential entrants, really. The nine not to name are: Richard Meltzer, Robert Christgau, Greil Marcus, Lester Bangs, Jon savage, Paul Morley, Ian Penman, Richard Cook, Simon Reynolds. ALSO: Don't name me. I will be all over any project I am involved with. Known and active Poptimists (apart from me) you can of course name, though you're all kind of a given just by turning up.
2: Now imagine the pool of writers we generally get to see in a "best of music writing". Which FOUR writers would you like to see added to it that currently don't get in? (This can be based on a much smaller body of work I think...) Which writers do you think are overlooked or poorly understood? Which writers have an approach -- perhaps mainly directed at some "non-popular" music, or indeed some NON-music -- which you think would be valuable if others adopted it?
re 1&2: Please append to any writers nominated an exemplary work --book, interview, review, sleevenote, whatever, long or short, typical or atypical.
3: Name SIX books about music that everyone should read. It can be about ANY kind of music. But it can't be by any of the folk you nominated in 1 or 2 (so yes, you may have to do some juggling to get the results you favour...). If six such books do not yet exist, please say so.
4: Now name FOUR pieces that AREN'T books -- can be reviews, blog posts, comments -- that everyone should read (they can be collected in books; they just can't be books). Again: not by any of the folk you named in 1-3.
5: Name THREE zones of debate or discussion that were really hoppin. Thus for example: the Zigzag gossip column 1977-79; the comments threads on the War Against Silence in 2001; the reviews pages of the east Village Eye in 1967... They have to be accessible -- so eg not pub discussions on that amazing night or so-and-so's tutorials when x was in her class; they can be the whole of a magazine across a slice of time; or a website; or whatever you want that fits the bill. This is a question about chemistry of voices, voices that haven't perhaps been so strong or interesting when divorced from their co-squabblees.
6: Name SIX films or documentaries about music that everyone should see: ; non-fiction; fiction; biopic -- whatever. What matters is the question of how they deal with music itself: how they make it the subject, or backdrop, or whatever they do.
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Date: 2010-05-13 06:27 am (UTC)1. Four writers to introduce:
Alex Ross
Nitsuh Abebe
Tom Ewing
Gary Giddins
2. Four writers to anthologize:
Pass. I don't have a good sense of who gets into anthologies.
3. Six books about music:
Stomp and Swerve by David Wondrich
The House That George Built by Wilfrid Sheed
The Seven Lively Arts by Gilbert Seldes
Where Dead Voices Gather by Nick Tosches
Any of Ethan Mordden's Broadway-by-the-decade books
Let's Talk About Love by Carl Wilson
4. Four non-books:
Mark Prindle's run through the Beach Boys' discography (http://www.markprindle.com/beachboys.htm)
Marcello Carlin's valiant attempt to avoid talking about Another Black And White Minstrel Show (http://nobilliards.blogspot.com/2009/02/george-mitchell-minstrels-another-black.html)
Several exchanges between R. Crumb and R. Fiore in the letters page of the Comics Journal on the worthwhileness of music made since 1952, at some point in the early 90s (I don't have my back issues anymore)
The Pet Shop Boys' "Where The Streets Have No Name"
5. Three zones:
Pass. I haven't been around long enough or done enough homework into scenes that passed me by.
6. Six films:
Swing Time (1936)
Fantasia (1940)
Jazz On A Summer's Day (1960)
This Is Spinal Tap (1984)
O Brother Where Art Thou (3000)
Treme (2010- )